Darlington's new signing Tom Newey has gone straight into the first-team squad for the visit of Bury to Feethams this afternoon.

Newey, a left-sided defender, was brought in on transfer deadline day until the end of the season from Leeds United.

Newey is looking to secure a permanent deal and has been given the chance to impress by Quakers boss Mick Tait.

The 20-year-old is a free agent in the summer and Darlington chairman George Reynolds said: "If it works out okay we'll keep him for next season."

Darlington also moved to extend Jim Corbett's stay in the North-East from Blackburn Rovers on Thursday with the striker now set to remain at Darlington until the end of the season.

Reynolds has also extended defender Matt Clarke's contract by 12 months and has confirmed he wants to keep Neil Maddison at the club when his current deal expires in the summer.

The 33-year-old had been expected to leave at the end of the season, but Reynolds is keen to prolong his tenure. He said: "I'll be talking to Neil soon and hopefully we can work something out.

"We'll be discussing terms for next season and if it's acceptable he'll stay with us. You can see how much the club means to him and these are the kind of players we want."

Darlington will be without three players for the visit of Bury this afternoon. Barry Conlon starts a two-match ban, Danny Mellanby is serving a one-game suspension and Ryan Valentine is on Wales Under-21 duty.

Meanwhile, Mike Newell is confident Hartlepool will get over their minor dip in form against Bournemouth this afternoon. Pool have lost two on the bounce for the first time since the start of October and entertain fellow promotion chasers Bournemouth at Victoria Park.

But Newell insists Pool remain on course for promotion despite their two successive away defeats. He said: "We lost a couple of games, but while we didn't play well, we weren't awful either. I'm still confident we remain on course to get promoted."

Newell did not move to strengthen his squad before transfer deadline day on Thursday.

He said: "We did look at a couple of players and thought about bringing them in, but they have got to be better than what you already have and we decided they weren't."

Newell is still playing his cards close to his chest regarding Gordon Watson's return to fitness.

Watson scored and played for 90 minutes in a reserve game this week, but his manager is still reluctant to rush him back.

* ORIGINALLY without a fixture due to Scotland's international, Gretna now have a re-arranged game at home to Morton in the Scottish League Third Division.

Morton are strong promotion contenders, while Gretna ended a lean spell with last Saturday's 3-1 victory over East Stirlingshire. Striker Mark Dobie starts a four-match ban after being sent off in that game.

Gretna are still without defender Tommy Turner and there are doubts over Steve Skinner and Keith Knox.